Council continues to look for alternative ways to treat weeds

As weed treatment resumes across the borough, Wirral Council continues to look at different options for weed removal with more trials of alternative treatments taking place this week.

In line with the council’s commitment to phase out glyphosate use across the borough, these further trials follow the manual scraping and other test treatments that were undertaken by the council’s weed maintenance contractor, Man Coed, last year.

The first of the four new trials started on Thursday 11 March and will be followed by more this week (w/c Monday 15 March) – and will all be carried out in the Beechwood Estate area.

Cllr Liz Grey, Chair of the Climate Emergency, Environment and Transport Committee at Wirral Council, said: “The latest trials will compare the effectiveness, as well as the cost and labour intensity of four weed treatments, with our existing method.

“The trials will follow on from previous work done to find an alternative and further support the council’s commitment to phase out glyphosate use across the borough.”

Once trials have taken place, a report will be taken to the Climate Emergency, Environment and Transport committee for review of the results and to determine if any of the treatments trialled provide a suitable alternative for weed removal.

The 2021 weed control programme is published online and can be found by visiting the council’s website.